On October 26, 2010, CMS is hosting a “Special Forum” on development of the Medicare hospital value-based purchasing (VBP) program, as required by Section 3001 of the ACA.  Under Section 3001, an inpatient hospital quality incentive payment program must be established effective with the FY 2013 inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) payment determination for Medicare discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2012. Under the VBP program, payments to high-performing hospitals will be larger than those to lower performing hospitals, which CMS observes will use “financial incentives to drive improvements in clinical quality, patient centeredness and efficiency.” During this forum, CMS is asking for input from attendees on all aspects of the Hospital VBP program development and implementation.